James E. Hawdon

James Hawdon, Ph.D. is director of the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention at Virginia Tech.

Broadly speaking, Dr. Hawdon’s research investigates the role of communities in promoting, deterring, or reacting to crime, violence, and tragedies. His most recent work focuses on online communities and how these pattern exposure to and participation in online extremism, radicalization, and political polarization.

He has published 11 books or edited books and more than 150 articles, book chapters, or research reports in the areas of terrorism and violent extremism, criminology, the sociology of drugs, the sociology of policing, disaster research, and research methodologies. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Justice, the National Funding Collaboration on Violence Prevention, and several foundations. He has conducted dozens of interviews for various local, national, and international media outlets, and his work has been cited in media outlets in countries from around the world.

Dr. Hawdon earned a B.A. from the Pennsylvania State University and a M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Turku (Finland) in 2022.  From 1992 to 2004, he was a faculty member at Clemson University, where he served as graduate director from 1995 to 2004 and director of the Lab for Survey Research from 1993 to 1999. He joined Virginia Tech in 2004 and served as the director of graduate studies from 2005 until 2011, when he became director of the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention.